Mistério da Magia Negra

Monogram cheapie (shot in seven days!) starring Bela Lugosi as a doctor who is kidnapping young women to use in voodoo rituals to cure his zombified wife. The things we do for love! Of the many Poverty Row movies Bela made during the 1940s, this is one of the most fun. It helps that in this one Bela has support from fellow horror legends George Zucco and John Carradine. All three contribute greatly to the unintended comedy that makes this such a silly entertaining picture. The hero of the piece is a writer played by Tod Andrews, an actor who played a lot of roles in film and television but who I best remember from an episode of the Andy Griffith Show where he played a jerk. He's kind of a jerk in this, too. There's also some fun character actors playing rubes that add to the humor. Anyway, this is worth a look for fans of Bela or those who like old mad scientist movies. It's nothing that's going to change your life but it might entertain you for an hour. Love that ending.

I found this film to be an enjoyable little effort from monogram I really liked the pairing of Lugosi and Zucco as the villians and also having John Carradine as an evil assistant....pretty much the standard fare you,ll get from most all Monogram films of this genre..but if you enjoy a simple little horror film like I do,this is a great one for a rainy day or a dark night...

Voodoo Man (1944)

*** (out of 4)

Monogram cheapie has Bela Lugosi playing a mad doctor who wants to bring his dead wife back to life. In order to do so he must kidnap women and use voodoo to make their souls go into the body of his wife.

As is to be expected, this is a very silly little film that doesn't have too much of a story going for it but it does have a great cast to keep things moving through its 62-minute running time. I often say that if you want art then Ingmar Bergman is highly recommended but if you just want some fast, fun and cheap entertainment then something like VOODOO MAN is just what you're looking for.

Lugosi is in fine form as the deranged doctor and he manages to deliver yet another good performance. He actually has a very touching scene where his wife returns to him for a few seconds before dying again and Lugosi really gives it his all in his heartbreak. George Zucco is also on hand as the man getting the girls. The scene stealer however is John Carradine as Lugosi's dimwitted slave.

There are a couple sequences, which are just downright hilarious with one showing Carradine playing the drums with the strangest look on his face. Another moment is when Carradine goes to the dungeon to talk with the kidnapped women only to let one escape. In fear, he starts crying that the master is going to beat him and this too is downright hilarious to watch.

All in all there's nothing overly special with this film but it does feature three horror greats and in the end it's fun camp. It's not meant to be taken serious and it's not meant to be examined by high- brow critics.

Sadly the days when a lone, mad scientist, toiling in the basement of his sinister mansion, could perform miracles over life and death with just a few test tubes and pulsing lights, without thought of glory or patent rights, have been curtailed by the corporate monopoly of science; the simple human desire to revivify the dead, trumped by the thirst for profit. Happily, voodoo has, thus far, eluded the grasping grip of greed (ouch!) and retained its humble individuality.

Voodoo Man returns us to that simpler time when science and magic worked hand in hand. It is another absurd poverty-row horror, filmed in seven days, in case you can't tell, by Bill "One-Shot" Beaudine for Sam Katzman's Monogram Pictures. Lugosi plays Marlowe, another mad scientist with another ailing wife. Indeed this wife is rather more than ailing: for 28 years she has been dead, but not in the sense we understand the word, of course. He tries to reanimate her by transferring to her the life force of abducted female motorists. Marlowe has some impressive technology – an impressive surveillance system, a car disabling ray, and some weird wife maintenance machinery. Still, he isn't one of those finicky skeptics who practice science nowadays. Like the alchemist, he recognizes the potential to improve scientific outcomes by utilizing magic.

This film is sensationally silly especially given the quality of the cast. This may not be Lugosi's most absurd role; unfortunately, the same can't be said for Carradine and Zucco. Carradine plays Toby, Marlowe's jogging, dimwitted henchman, who kidnaps women and doubles as Marlowe's percussion section. His bizarre performance is only over-cast by Zucco who plays Nicholas, gas station proprietor and voodoo priest. Zucco usually brings an air of dignity to the foolish roles he plays but this one is beyond him. While Toby bashes a bongo, Nicholas, in a cheap college gown and "Phyllis Diller wig," chants gibberish at a piece of string in the name of Ramboonya who is, apparently, all powerful. And, to be fair, Nicholas is getting results until meddling relatives and policemen interfere with the ceremonies.

This film has remained too obscure and deserves a far greater audience. Amazing stuff.

'Voodoo Man' is possibly the best of Bela Lugosi's Monogram minor budget films from the early 40's most, but not all, of which we horror films.

A typically brief running time of just a smidgen over one hour keeps things just about brisk enough without lapsing into repetitiveness or filler of people running in circles which are two common maladies of minor budget cheapie b-pics in my experience.

Instead there is a bit of atmosphere and tension generated in a film that centres on a cracking, creaking and cranky set up of a demented mad doctor (Bela Lugosi) organising the abduction and Voodoo exploitation of unaccompanied young women in the service of reviving his zombified wife.

All in all along with a smattering of atmospheric tension there is also a clearly delivered tone of dark, dank, dirty and dangerous human behaviour which puts the horrible into horror.

Of course Bela Lugosi is the centrepiece but he gets some willing support from a game cast.

Added value comes from the playful treatment of the whole idea of 'Voodoo Man' as being utterly sappy nonsense that only a wacky Hollywood scriptwriter hack could sell.

With sly nods to the real silliness at play with references to the films producers and its star early in the piece and then at the very end.

I rate at 5/10 and obviously this rating takes into account that 'Voodoo Man' was a very Poverty Row minor b-picture cheapie/quickie!

I recommend to anyone willing to lend large globs of suspension of disbelief and be as game at the cast. Also to anyone less charitable but looking for a laugh and a hoot.

Having said that some if the broad comedy exchanges are the only real misfires of 'Voodoo Man' for my personal taste although a grim dry humour from Lugosi is nicely included on a couple of occasions!